


Fiends

by Sae_G



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Awkward Flirting, F/F, Hidden Relationship, I hope, Lin is extremely emotionally constipated, Love, Mom!Boss and Detective!Son, Romance, Slowburn but not really?, because lin is emotionally constipated, but not for long, korra is so so smart but so so dumb, kyalin - Freeform, lonely lin, the author does not know how to tag
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-16
Updated: 2021-01-16
Packaged: 2021-03-14 11:23:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,809
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28794618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sae_G/pseuds/Sae_G
Summary: When Kya comes back to Republic City after traveling the world for four years, so much has changed. Her family has changed, the city has changed, and so has her best friend, Lin Beifong.Eventual KyaLin
Relationships: Lin Beifong/Kya II, Pema/Tenzin (Avatar)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 29





	Fiends

**Author's Note:**

> This is probably going to be about ten to twelve chapters, and will definitely not be updated regularly because I am, of course, an inconsistent piece of trash when it comes to my writing. This has actually been on my laptop for months, nay years, and I JUST got the inspiration to continue it. The rest of the chapters will be longer, but I felt this ended on a good cliffhanger and I am nothing if not a sucker for those. Enjoy <3

The clock on Lin’s desk ticks as the seconds turn into minutes. The day is almost over for the police captain, and all she can think of is getting home, getting a shower, and passing out on her couch. From her seat, she can hear her mother yelling into the radio about a bank robbery gone south. Two dead, two in custody, one metalbending officer in the hospital. Lin grumbles to herself. Had it been her out there, none of this would have happened. However, the newly designated captain has been forced to suffer through desk duty for the next few months. It’s supposed to be some sort of “cathartic healing break” considering she had all but leveled Air Temple Island only a few months back. Her punishment? Paperwork, paperwork, and more paperwork. Lin can’t complain though. She should have been fired, could still be fired, and though she supposes this is one of the perks of having the Chief of Police as a mother, the eldest Beifong daughter cannot help but think of how lucky her younger sister Suyin is. At least she gets to be away from all of the humdrum of city life where every city block reminds Lin of something she has lost, of something she never knew she had, and of something she will probably never find again. That bench near Lilyliver’s Cuisine? The place Tenzin had kissed her after a somewhat rubbish first date. The pond near the patch of grass on the side of Yué Bay? The place where Lin had first admitted to herself that she was in love. Every blade of grass in the city holds a memory for Lin, and walking past each building, each street corner, resurfaces images she longs to forget.

Lin fiddles aimlessly with the pen on her desk as she looks over some new budget report. The council is demanding cuts from her unit, and she must decide which officers to let go and which to reassign. Being captain is tedious at best, and this is not how she imagined she would spend her first few months in the new position. _Has it always been this troublesome?_ She thinks to herself, and no, it hasn’t always been so grueling because she has never felt more confined in her life. She has never been made to tamp out her aggression when her only desire is to sprint down the streets and take out a few bad guys, level a few triad members, wrap her cables around them and—

The clock on her desk shakes violently as it dings. _Time to go home_ , Lin thinks somberly, _to nothing and no one._ She places her pen in the metal ink box at the top of her desk and arranges the stack of papers in front of her to resemble at least something orderly. It has been more difficult as of late to keep her desk in order. She never used it much before, but now she is receiving heaps of paperwork from the other officers, per her mother’s instructions, and it all keeps stacking up. There is almost no wood visible on her desk anymore, and it _bothers_ her. The papers set to the side, Lin scoots her chair back and winces at the sound the metal legs make on the stone floor. It didn’t used to bother her, but now she is reminded, every time she stands from her desk, that she is stuck there, unable to use her element to help others. She sighs furiously and gathers her bag from the floor next to the desk before slamming the chair back into its place underneath. It slams with a resounding knock against the wood, and the other officers in the room glance at her with pity in their eyes. It’s a look she can’t stand to receive, least of all from her coworkers. She mumbles out a pathetic, “Mind your business,” before she moves to the door at the front of the room. With a flick of her wrist, the door swings open, and for a moment, Lin is satisfied. She can feel the thrum of electricity course through her veins as she controls the metal, can feel the click of the hinges as it swings to one side, as it bangs softly against the stone wall. Lin doesn’t look back as she walks out the door and to the stairwell. Normally, she would choose the elevator, but she has been strapped to a desk all day by endless mountains of paperwork, and her legs could use the exercise. She gracefully bounds down the staircase, skipping the stairs at the bottom of each floor until she reaches the double doors to the lobby of the police headquarters. She takes a deep breath before heading into the lobby, and what she sees is quite a surprise.

“Lin!” The waterbender yelps as she stumbles into a table next to the door. It is obvious that she has been waiting, and Lin has to take a second to breathe because this is the first time that she has seen Kya in years. She looks good, Lin must admit. She’s older, obviously, but her face has filled out. Her arms, which used to be so lanky when they were teenagers are no longer wiry but show the growing strength of a practiced and experienced bender. The dark skin of Kya’s face is occluded by a mop of unruly white hair which she huffs away from her mouth and brushes aside with her long fingers. Her hair has always been white, and Lin thinks back to when they were children, when she asked her mother why Kya had such light hair, and Sokka had choked on his drink before standing and leaving the table. Lin was scared she had done something to offend him, but it wasn’t until Aang sat down and told Lin about Kya’s childhood, about how she was born sick, and about how their friend Yué, the spirit of the moon, had blessed the life of their daughter. When Kya turned three, her hair turned with her. Lin had then asked about Yué, if Kya was going to have to go away like Yué did, and she doesn’t remember ever being as terrified as she was when she thought Kya was going to die and become the moon. She laughs away the thought as she comes back to the present. “Lin! I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”

“Well, I think it’s safe to say you found me. What can I do for you, Kya?” Lin asks rigidly. She straightens her spine, squares her shoulders, and sets her jaw with a resounding click of her teeth. It’s a cold greeting, distant, and Lin is sure the waterbender has picked up on it.

“Oh Spirits, Lin! Don’t be like that. I have been gone for all of a year, and suddenly we aren’t friends anymore?” The metalbender scoffs. _One year? Try four._ Kya jumps in front of Lin and is suddenly walking backwards to try and stop the officer. “Jeez, Lin, you’d think Tenzin would have softened you up by now.”

“Tenzin and I are no longer together, Kya. Did your airhead of a brother not tell you that?” She seethes, and her breath stops. Kya’s mouth is hanging open, her eyes wide and her brows furrowed. “He really didn’t tell you?” Lin asks, because no, why would Tenzin tell his absent sister all about his love life when he is busy screwing some air acolyte every night? _He probably doesn’t even have time to write_ , she thinks bitterly.

“No, oh Spirits, Lin. I am so sorry. I had no idea. I haven’t really talked to Tenzin since I left, y’know?” Kya is making an effort to look at anything but Lin. The two have stopped their walking and are facing each other next to the door of the police station, neither making eye contact. It’s awkward. It’s unprecedented. It’s everything Lin Beifong does not want to deal with tonight. As she moves to step through the door and away from Kya, the older woman grabs her arm. “Lin, seriously, I didn’t know. I’m sorry. I came here to see you. I missed you.”

“Yeah, well, if you missed me so much, you could have—I don’t know—written a letter!” Lin scoffs, and she shrugs the waterbender’s hand off her arm before trudging out into the street. It’s cold outside, and the chill of the evening hits the metal of Lin’s uniform with force. She shakes her arms before she crosses them. Her foot moves forward, but she is once again pulled back by a hand on her arm.

“Lin, please!” The metalbender concedes for a moment. She turns to face Kya. “Thank you. Let’s go grab a drink. You look like you could use it,” and as Lin opens her mouth to protest, Kya adds, “I’m paying!” Lin can’t refuse that.

* * *

They settle into a booth at a small bar a few blocks away from the police station. It’s tucked into a small cove in an alleyway far enough from the street that Lin is sure she won’t run into anyone else she knows, but she still keeps her eyes open just in case. Kya is nursing a cactus juice while Lin sits with a cup of tea. She can’t afford a hangover right now, and that’s all she will get if she lets Kya talk her into drinking.

“So, you and Tenzin broke up, huh?” Kya asks after a particularly big sip of cactus juice. Lin stands.

“I’m leaving. I don’t know why I thought this was a good idea.”

“Lin, wait! Seriously, Lin, stop trying to run away and just sit down and talk to me!” Kya is nearly yelling at this point. Her white hair bounces on her shoulders as she moves her arms up and down, motions to the now empty booth in front of her. “One night, one conversation. That’s all I am asking for. If you never want to talk to me come tomorrow, then fine. But we’re talking tonight, or so help me Raava, I will follow you home.”

Lin sits back down, a huff escaping her lips as her arms cross one over the other. “Fine,” she grits out. This isn’t exactly how she planned to start her weekend, but it’ll have to do since she has no other option. One motion across the bar tells the bartender that Lin will have something a little stronger, and as the metalbender finishes her tea, she begins to tell Kya about Tenzin. “We just…weren’t working anymore. That’s what he said, at least. I didn’t see it. Apparently, not working was code for him fucking some air acolyte, though, because he moved on not even three days after he dumped me.”

“That prick,” Kya mutters. The bartender leaves two more cactus juices on the table. “He never said anything, and I never pictured him doing something like that—least of all to you.”

“Well,” Lin sighs. “You weren’t exactly around to picture much, now were you?” It’s a bitter statement, and she knows this, but Kya has been gone for a year this time…nine months the time before that, and almost two years the time before that. They only saw each other for brief moments when Kya would stop by Air Temple Island to crash for a night, and she was always gone long before morning came. The waterbender had been almost entirely absent for the duration of her relationship with Tenzin.

“That isn’t fair, Lin. You know I had to go. It was time for me to explore a little too, hm?” Kya counters, and she’s right. Lin can’t fault her for wanting to explore the world, even if it is something the captain has never felt the need to do herself. She’s never had an interest in seeing the world. She sees enough atrocities in her day to day life to last her for a while. But even still, Lin didn’t have many friends. Actually, she didn’t have friends when Kya left. The white-haired woman had been her only friend before she left, and once she was gone, Lin had no one to confide in about Tenzin, about her life, about her mother. It had all built her into a bitter, isolated person. She is still a bitter and isolated person.

“Yeah, well, forgive me if accepting abandonment isn’t my strong suit,” she scoffs.

“Is that what you think I did? Abandoned you?” Kya whispers.

“I’m not sure how else I’m supposed to see it, Kya,” the metalbender looks down, suddenly ashamed at her inability to contain the raging emotions inside her. “One day, you were my best friend, and the next day you were just…gone. You didn’t write. You didn’t visit. You would leave for months, sometimes years at a time, and I wouldn’t…I wouldn’t know what you were doing, or if you were even alive. I had to ask your mother, Kya, because suddenly you wouldn’t talk to me. So yeah, I feel like you abandoned me just a little.” She’s angry now, and her forefinger and thumb are pressed together as she squints her eye. She can see on the waterbender’s face that her words struck a chord. There may be even a little recognition in her eyes, but if there is, Kya doesn’t admit it. Having enough of the conversation, Lin stands. “Thanks for the drinks, Kya. We should do this again some time.”

She turns and leaves, and she doesn’t look back.

* * *

Kya watches the metalbender walk out of the bar. Her black hair sways over her shoulders, and the light catches the two, newer scars on her cheek as she turns the corner, but Lin doesn’t look back at her. “Damn it,” Kya mutters. She pushes her drink away from her and buries her head in her hands. “Damn it, damn it, damn it!” The cup of cactus juice shatters on the table, and before the bartender can react, Kya slams down a wad of cash and hurries out the door. She takes the opposite direction that Lin took. Her moccasins slap the pavement with every step, her shoulders heavy and her head pounding. She was so stupid to think she could just pop back into Lin’s life. After everything that had happened. After everything she had been through. It was reckless, it was stupid, it was selfish. Kya knows this though, knew it before she decided to do it. So now that she is left out in the mud, she only has herself to blame. The worst part of it is that she hasn’t even gotten the chance to tell Lin why she left to begin with. That it had been too difficult to be around the metalbender while she was dating Tenzin because Kya was _in love_ with her. But now, Kya has moved on, has straightened these feelings out, and is ready to be a better best friend. She hasn’t even told Lin yet that she’s moving back to Republic City—permanently. Secretly, the waterbender hopes that Lin will remain angry with her for a while, give her a chance to be sure that she truly is over these petty, childish feelings before she really commits to being there for Lin. Spirits know what could happen should she still be in love with Lin at such a vulnerable point in her life, and the white-haired woman doesn’t know if she could ever forgive herself.

She’s turning another corner when she hears it: the soft, dull cough of a child and the quick gasp followed by a quiet, “Sh! You can’t let them know we’re here!” She stoops down to get a closer look.

“Hello?” Kya calls out, and there’s a moment where a piece of cardboard shuffles slightly to the side. “Hello? I know you’re over there, so you might as well just come on out, kids.” There’s another shuffle before two small, male figures rush into view.

“Bolin! Go! Run!” Shouts the older boy, and the younger darts between Kya’s skirts, escapes around the back and goes bounding off into the street. Kya turns quickly, horror filling her face as she sees what is going to happen before either boy does. She rushes forward, opening the satchel of water at her side with a quick twist of her fingers, and she dives forward into the street after the young boy.

“Wait!” She screams. Her arms wrap around his waist and she twists. He is thrown backwards towards the curb, but the momentum of her lunge is too strong. She falls onto her knees in the street and squeezes her eyes shut in preparation for the impact she is sure that truck is going make with her body.


End file.
